"it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention..."

I've recently returned to New York from a whirlwind tour of teaching in Japan. After my fourth trip I've found a rhythm, a routine that keeps me running like a well oiled travel machine. The story usually goes something like this: long flight, jet lag, teach-teach-teach, busy-busy, eat some amazing food, teach-teach-teach-busy-busy, more good food and great company, teach-teach-teach, dizzying sense of pride and accomplishment, a quick cry, catch a breath, long flight, whoooooooosh, jet lag, New York City, forgot how noisy, teach-teach-teach, busy-busy, eat some amazing food, repeat.

This time was different. This time something magical happened along the way. A drive up the California coast, a pause.

Somewhere between Tokyo's Haneda airport and the noise of NYC, somewhere around the tip of Malibu, or the farmers market in Santa Barbara, or the misty hills of San Fran (I couldn't say exactly); I slowed way down. Not the kind of slowing down I usually find on vacation. A pace so different it seemed not to be coming from an outside idea of what should happen on vacation, but from somewhere deep within myself.

The coastline is beyond beautiful, and I had an empty schedule. The conditions were just right for slowing down. However, as many of us have experienced, even when blessed with ideal conditions on vacation the slowing cannot or will not occur. Everybody always says "It's not about the destination, it's the journey that matters." This I understand in theory, but I've always had a rough time reconciling the notion of enjoying the journey with my sense of drive and determination. What I found over the course of ten days of travel without much of a schedule is that both the journey and the destination can be equally thrilling, and that ultimately they are one and the same. In each moment we have the opportunity to pay attention to what is right in front of us while simultaneously moving forward. 

I took this photograph at the start of my vacation in Santa Monica. The view through a camera is captivating. A lens provides a portal to seeing the foreground, the background, and most importantly the relationship between the two. The shore is a long distance away. The plants in the foreground are nowhere near as big as they seem in this image. But what if everything in the foreground of our experience could be this big, this meaningful? And what if we coud see what's right in front of us while still keeping an eye on the horizon?

Upon returning to New York I've begun a practice of maintaining my slow pace. The true test of lasting change is to return to the familiar with a new perspective on old habits. It's not easy in a city that moves so fast, but I focus on one or two small things I see on my walk to the subway, or I leave ten minutes early and choose a slower pace to my destination. I've found that I can have the trees, the forest, and whatever lies on the horizon. Perhaps the most miraculous discovery of all is that when I slow down, the city slows down with me!

I've included two poems that have inspired me since the conclusion of my recent training in Japan, and continue to keep me on the path of seeing the small quiet things in the big noisy city.

_____________________________________

Praying

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

- Mary Oliver

_____________________________________

Very little grows on jagged rock,

Be ground, be crumbled

So wildflowers will come up where you are.

You’ve been stoney for too many years

Try something different

Surrender

- Rumi

Japan Workshops: Quiet and Cool, Introspective Practices for Summer

☆ 日本人の友達！ ワークショップ - 静かで、涼しい、夏の練習 ☆ 
♥ すぐにお会いしましょう！♥

レッスン内容

1☆ ゆるやかなフローで身体を開く

リストラティブのポーズで身体を深く休ませ、意識を内へ向けていく　

2☆ 股関節を開く

座位でのメディテーション、プラナヤーマ

3☆ やさしくゆったりとしたアプローチでの後屈、ツイスト

仰臥位でのメディテーション、プラナヤーマ

Tokyo 東京 (五反田店)
1☆ 7月5日 19:00-21:00
2☆ 7月6日 19:00-21:00 
3☆ 7月7日 10:30-12:30

http://www.yoga-plus.jp/event/eventInformartion.php?news_id=2272

Osaka 大阪 (ヨガプラス梅田店)
1☆ 7月14日 15:00-17:00
2☆ 7月15日 14:30-16:30
3☆ 7月22日 14:30-16:30  

http://www.yoga-plus.jp/event/eventInformartion.php?news_id=2265

Himeji 姫路
8月4日 (Studio Fooca)

2☆ 12:30-14:30

3☆ 15:00-17:00
http://fooca.jp/2012/06/caitlincasella-ws/

8月5日 (Studio Cocoro)

2☆ 10:00-12:00

3☆ 12:30-14:30
http://offthemat.exblog.jp/17674933/

Yoga photos making the rounds

I was so excited to open the latest edition of Yoga Journal and find the always inspiring Jenny Aurthur rocking her vasisthasana on the YogaWorks "meet your trainer" page. I'm thrilled to see my photographs getting out there in the world! 

Go take one of Jenny's classes at YogaWorks in New York. Click here to view her website full of stunning imagery by Ian Gittler.




While you are at it, pop over to Gaiam TV and check out the new yoga videos by Chrissy Carter. Another way my photos are getting out there...

Last but not least, photos from my most recent shoot with Laurel Beversdorf went into the creation of her lovely new website.

It is a pleasure to work in this community of super smart yoga teachers. To see and document their practices is a gift.

☆ 東京 ☆ Tokyo!

I'm off to Tokyo for another teacher training. I'll be back and teaching my regular class schedule on Wednesday, April 4th. Fabulous subs are all listed on the YogaWorks Union Square schedule.

Check out my travel/photo blog updates at yogarally. It's been dormant too long...

Can't wait for that first bowl of udon! 

Much love and happy Spring,

Caitlin 

yoga sleuth

I got yoga sleuthed! Many thanks to Jim Catapano for the review. Find reviews of other NYC yoga classes on the YogaCity/YogaSleuth website.

Alignment and Ascension with Caitlin Casella
YogaWorks Union Square138 Fifth Avenue, 4th Floor

Wed 7:30 PM to 8:45 PM
Beginner
www.yogaworks.com

“Time for a Hump-Day tune-up,” said Yoga Sleuth to himself (yes I do both talk to myself AND refer to myself in the third person, but hey, we’re all One). I floated down to Union Square and into the beckoning arms of YogaWorks, to re-align and restore with one of its fine instructors, Nebraska native Caitlin Casella.

Caitlin’s warm presence was felt immediately as she greeted us cheerfully and made a promise of juicy backbending and hip-opening yet to come. She asked us to grab two blocks, a blanket and a strap, and had us lie on our backs with our feet on the floor.

“Start to pinpoint a particular place where you feel the breath expand initially,” said Caitlin. "Move your hands to that place. It might be your belly, the chest, the low ribs. See if you can begin to elongate your inhalation so that the breath begins to spill over into the neighboring areas, creating a little more space inside."

We reached our legs across the mat and raised our arms overhead into a full-bodied stretch, palms facing each other. Inhaling we hugged both knees close to the chest, and with the exhale let them out again. “You're almost like a Bellows, those little things that puff up fireplaces," said Caitlin, guiding our deep breaths.

We got our feet involved in our Cat and Cow, tucking our toes in the latter to give the soles a sorely needed (pun intended) stretch. Then it was time for the crucial first Down Dog of the day. Rather than just leaving us to it, Caitlin proceeded to break down the pose bit by bit, giving us a renewed understanding and appreciation that is so often lost through habit and repetition:

"Bend your knees a little, a tiny bend, and then pull your hips straight back to the wall behind you, as if you're trying to sit on that wall. Press the floor away with your hands and move your upper body towards your legs. Let your head hang,  your neck relax. Fingers wide, even pressure on your palms.

Notice the weight ratio in your arms versus the legs...often when we first come into down dog, it's more challenging to get the weight into the legs. Take a mental note of this feeling...when we revisit the pose later it should be a very different experience."

Coming to stand with feet hip width, we stretched our arms skyward. "Lift your gaze up until you can almost see your palms, and then pull your chest up towards that space between your hands. Imagine you're at the bottom of a swimming pool and you're trying to swim your way to the top." This imagery did indeed make my arms work harder and the pose more heat-building, as Caitlin predicted it would.


Our chair poses were similarly deconstructed. "Let your hips go back and down, stretching your arms forward and up to counterbalance," Caitlin cued. We lifted our gaze, but took the weight back into our heels as if sitting into a chair a foot behind us, as Caitlin suggested. “There's a feeling of ascension, of lightness in the upper body. Sit an inch lower, but lift your arms an inch higher."

From there we moved into a mini-lunge workshop with hands pressed into blocks. "Imagine a long line from your right heel to the center of your chest," said Caitlin. "And then make it longer by moving your chest forward but simultaneously pressing your heel back. So it's just a tug-of-war between the chest and the right heel."

After carefully cued deconstructions of warrior two and extended side angle, we returned to our down dogs to see how they'd evolved. "Just notice if you're a little bit more 'leggy,'" said Caitlin, and indeed I was.

Bringing our mats to the wall, we placed the outer heel of one foot against it, toes turned in, while spreading the other leg wide.  We pushed into the place where our floor met the wall as we bent our knee, "creating a little opposition in two directions." Putting the block on its highest height, we tipped to the side and brought our hands to the block.

"The game is to move the knee into the arm, turning the leg open, keeping the knee moving toward the arm, lifting the chest, and working to straighten the leg." We played with that several times, coming from extended side angle to triangle with Caitlin's (and the trusty wall's) deft guidance. And soon I was taller and twistier than I'd been for some time.

Then Caitlin asked if she could use my props and mat to demo, and I readily agreed (happy that I’d be set up perfectly for the next pose!). We were to place the blanket completely over the mat for comfort and sliding purposes. Then we put the block on the lowest setting against the wall, and tied a strap around our hips. "Knees a little wider than hips as you press out into the support of the strap. It helps you lift the hips a lot."

Hips duly lifted, we put a second block under the sacrum on its highest height.  Finally we straightened our legs, and placed our heels on the block abutting the wall. Voila! "A big, mild, but long backbend for the whole body," which we held for several blissful breaths.

Our encore was a supine twist and a long Savasana. "Go to your exhalation as a way to soften down into gravity," whispered Caitlin.

"Seeking the support of the floor." She brought blankets to those who needed support under their knees. "Find a little more ease and softness inside. Any frenetic energy at the front of your face, let it recede back into the place where your head is in contact with the floor."


As we let go of the weight of our heads and the thoughts within, the rest of our bodies followed suit, content at the end of a great class with an exceptional teacher.

Drop-in Classes at YogaWorks are $22 with a $2 mat rental.

--Jim Catapano for Yoga Sleuth

new year

Dear friends and students of yoga,
Happy New Year! May 2012 bring you abundant opportunity for exploration and new discoveries.


Yesterday, during my last yoga practice of the year, I was inspired by something my teacher Carrie shared in class. We were playing with the rope wall to create traction on the back thigh in trikonasana. A rope positioned at a higher point on the wall provided a different sense of direction than a rope placed at a lower point. A short rope gave a different sense of support than a long rope. Essentially, the angle and length of the rope changed the experience of the pose. The rope did this for us, so that we were able to let go of the doing and simply receive, observe the feedback provided by the prop.


When the body receives this kind of feedback, we build muscular memory. With consistant and conscious practice of asana, the intelligence imbedded in our cells overrides the need for everything to be filtered through the mind. This morning as I revisited trikonasana without the rope wall, I challenged myself to let go of the mental dialogue -- the front big toe, revolving thigh, side waist... blahdy-blah-blah. My body knows the pose like riding a bike. Trusting the intelligence of the body makes space in the mind for direct perception of the experience. Free from the mental list of what should be, we can more clearly see what is and move from there.


I invite you to try this while holding a familiar pose for 30 seconds to a minute -- notice how much mental dialogue exists. Are your thoughts centered around your alignment in the pose, sensations in the body, the breath? Are there other unexpected topics (most likely) that find their way into your mental landscape? Challenge yourself to observe these thoughts without pursuing them. And when you find yourself imposing some mental to do list on a simple asana, ask yourself, "Is it meaningful or just extraneous words?" As B.K.S. Iyengar writes in Light on Life, "Let the body be the doer, the brain the observer."




My class schedule is changing:


I'm taking on a new level 1/2 class at YogaWorks Union Square on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:15-12:30PM. Additionally, I'm thrilled to be joining the team at Zenyasa Yoga and Wellness Studio! Beginning January 11th, I will teach an open level class on Wednesdays from 4-5:30PM.  


I'm sorry to announce that with the addition of these new classes I will be giving up my Saturday 12:15PM class in Soho and my Sunday 4PM class at Union Square. I will be teaching these classes for the last time on January 7th and 8th. Thanks to all who have been coming and sharing your practice with me, I hope to see you soon at the Union Square studio!


Monday/Wednesday night level 1 and Sunday morning level 2 classes remain the same. My complete schedule can be found on my class schedule page.


All best wishes for the New Year,


Caitlin

My holiday paradise - Playa Del Rey Beach, Los Angeles

I ♥ travel

I've compiled some of my favorite travel photos. Stay tuned for more soon as I travel to LA for the Holidays, and back to Tokyo in March!  

Also, I just got an iPhone. I'm in love, however, I've found that my pretty flash galleries cannot be viewed on iPhone. I'm working on it...